Hydrophobicity, Adhesion, and Surface-Exposed Proteins of Gliding Bacteria

Abstract

The cell surface hydrophobicities of a variety of aquatic and terrestrial gliding bacteria were measured by an assay of bacterial adherence to hydrocarbons (BATH), hydrophobic interaction chromatography, and the salt aggregation test. The bacteria demonstrated a broad range of hydrophobicities. Results among the three hydrophobicity assays performed on very hydrophilic strains were quite consistent. Bacterial adhesion to glass did not correlate with any particular measure of surface hydrophobicity. Several adhesion-defective mutants of Cytophaga sp. strain U67 were found to be more hydrophilic than the wild type, particularly by the BATH assay and hydrophobic interaction chromatography. The very limited adhesion of these mutants correlated well with hydrophilicity as determined by the BATH assay. The hydrophobicities of several adhesion-competent revertants ranged between those of the wild type and the mutants. As measured by the BATH assay, starvation increased hydrophobicity of both the wild type and an adhesion-defective mutant. During filament fragmentation of Flexibacter sp. strain FS-1, marked changes in hydrophobicity and adhesion were accompanied by changes in the arrays of surface-exposed proteins as detected by an immobilized radioiodination procedure.

Biofilm Formation and Control in Food Processing Facilities

“…For Listeria, the optimum metabolic activity and attachment conditions were at 30 ЊC and pH 7, and for Yersinia the optimum was at 21 ЊC and pH 8 to 9. Sorongon (1991) observed that starvation of Cytophaga increases surface hydrophobicity. Other studies have correlated adhesion with surface charge and hydrophobicity.…”

Adhesion of the fish pathogen Flavobacterium psychrophilum to unfertilized eggs of rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) and n-hexadecane

“…Hydrophobicity tends to increase with the age of the bacterium, as in the case of Acinetobacter calcoaceticus (Rosenberg et al 1981). Differences between strains of the same species have also been observed, for example in the case of different strains of Cytophaga johnsonae (Sorongon et al 1991) or Vibrio species (Lee and Yii 1996).…”

Tenacibaculosis induction in the Senegalese sole (Solea senegalensis) and studies of Tenacibaculum maritimum survival against host mucus and plasma

“…The best method to avoid bacterial aggregation with a significant amount of bacterial yields was to inoculate bacteria directly into marine broth at 25°C for 48 h with vigorous shaking. The role of strong agitation in preventing bacterial slime formation and aggregation was already reported by Burchard & Schwarz (1989) and Sorongon, Bloodgood & Burchard (1991). These authors observed that static liquid cultures revealed detectable slimy bacteria manifested by increasing culture viscosity, while during shaking conditions, some of the extracellular polymers constituting the slime were sloughed off and therefore increased bacterial hydrophobicity, which in turn reduces surface bacterial adhesion and biofilm formation.…”